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Lafayette family takes their fight against diabetes to the street

Tour de Cure in sixth year at Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont

By Pam MellskogLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
08/15/2011 11:58:32 PM MDT

Updated:
08/17/2011 04:55:16 PM MDT

Lela Henderson, 5, of Lafayette, gets a boost into a bicycle trailer with the help of her mother Sandra. Lela was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just before her 4th birthday. To help raise funds for research into treatments, Lela and her parents will be participating in Tour de Cure Colorado -- the annual American Diabetes Association cycling event that takes place in Longmont on Saturday, Aug. 20.
(Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

LAFAYETTE -- Every time her daughter takes swimming lessons, Sandra Henderson sits poolside with apple juice at the ready.

Lela Henderson, 5, developed type 1 diabetes about a year ago, and the rigors of swimming can change her blood sugar profile quickly.

So her mother pricks Lela Henderson's finger before and after the lesson to make sure the girl's blood sugar level is steady, and offers apple juice if it is low.

The American Diabetes Association's annual flagship fundraiser, Tour de Cure, aims to change that intensive level of management for both type 1 and type 2 diabetics by funding cure-focused research.

Colorado, with its avid cycling community, attracts up to 2,000 people for the ride, which has been staged since 2006 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, said Tour de Cure Colorado chairman Bob Jobin.

"There's just no better place in the state," he said of the fairgrounds where volunteers on Saturday will dispatch participants around Longmont's greenbelt paths, to the Flatirons, Carter Lake and up to Estes Park, depending on which track each participant selects.

In 2010, the ride generated $810,000 and ranked as the third biggest of the 80 rides held nationwide, Jobin said.

Besides dollars, the ride raises awareness -- something critical given the growing incidence of the often lifestyle-related type 2 diabetes.

Only 5 percent of the 25.8 million children and adults living with diabetes in the United States -- about 8 percent of the population -- suffers from type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body stops producing the insulin hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy, according to the ADA website.

Lela Henderson, 5, of Lafayette, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes just before her 4th birthday. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

The rest contend with the type 2 version, in which the body produces too little insulin or the cells resist accepting the insulin needed to convert food into energy.

Though type 2 diabetes is not completely understood, researchers cite obesity as a its leading cause -- a condition also thought to influence the disease's progression in an estimated 79 million people hovering in a borderline diabetic state.

"It is the first non-infectious disease that the World Health Organization has recognized as a pandemic," said Dorothy Price, coordinator of the Diabetes Self-Management Program at Longmont United Hospital.

Part of self-management revolves around eating a healthy diet rich in whole (unprocessed) foods and lowering fat intake, she said.

During a typical 24-hour cycle, Lela Henderson's parents prick her finger up to 15 times for blood sugar tests. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)

"But the magic bullet for general health is physical activity. It corrects so many things," Price added.

That reality motivated ADA in 2007 to introduce its red shirt rider program, which encourages people with diabetes to move from the ride's sidelines and into the bike saddle.

The Hendersons assembled an eight-member team called Lela's Beta Bikers, which has generated $2,335 of its $2,500 goal.

Lela Henderson planned to ride behind her father, Dan Henderson, 46, in a tagalong -- a kid's bike that connects to the back of an adult's bike.

But she broke her arm recently and likely will sit behind him in a two-wheel trailer with a tent top on ride day.

Talking about their team and its ride for a cure reminds the family of how intrusive diabetes can be.

During a typical 24-hour cycle, the Hendersons prick their daughter's finger up to 15 times for a blood sugar test.

"We travel with our digital scale so we can weigh her food before every meal and snack," Sandra Henderson, 39, said. "When I see obese children, I wish the parents knew what I know now so they would do something to change it."

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